Warming up
by AngelofDarkness1605
Summary: Ariadne isn't too fond of the cold in the warehouse, but luckily Arthur knows quite a few ways to keep her warm.
1. Fascination

**Warming up**

Fascination

Even though the days passed so much more quickly in the constructed dreams, time in the actual world did not stand still either. Ariadne was reminded of this on an early September morning, when she stepped out of her small apartment to head for the warehouse where the preparation for the Fischer job would continue.

An involuntary shiver went down her spine and only when she looked up at the sky, she realized that the sun wasn't shining anymore. Instead, the sky was nothing but a collection of countless clouds in various shades of gray. Summer was over, at least for a while, and she was completely unprepared for autumn's arrival.

Being late already, she didn't have the time to get back inside and change into clothing more suitable for the season. She was sure however that the temperature in the warehouse would be as pleasant as always and the walk towards it was only a short one anyway.

But when she arrived in the warehouse fifteen minutes later, she was trembling with cold. Even increasing her walking speed hadn't been enough to warm her up and Ariadne was thankful that at least it wasn't raining. The fact that she had been completely unaware of the change of weather bothered her as much as the cold did: was she already so lost in the dreams that she didn't notice such things in the real world anymore until it was too late? The days that she used to check the weather forecast before choosing her outfit couldn't be _that_ long ago.

Entering the warehouse, she greeted the other members of the team and settled herself behind her desk. She continued her work where she had stopped the previous night and lost track of everything when she tried to perfect the complex mazes that she had been designing the past few days.

Only when Eames's voice alerted her that it was time for their lunch break, Ariadne realized that she was feeling even colder than when she arrived that morning. Only then she became aware of the cold draft inside the large room. Doubtlessly the streams of air had always been there, finding their way inside through holes and gaps in the walls of the old building, but until very recently the temperature in the warehouse had been such that she didn't notice them.

It was Yusuf's turn to get lunch for the entire team from the small shop around the corner and although Ariadne usually loved to get out of the warehouse for a few minutes, she was glad that she could stay inside this time. At least it was still dry inside the building and judging from Yusuf's appearance when he returned, the same couldn't be said for outside.

No matter how much she loved the new world that she was offered, the lunch break was one of her favorite parts of the day. It was the only moment that all the team members stopped working for a short time simultaneously and although she had no idea why this habit was maintained in their line of work (it seemed very out of place, so... traditional), she liked to observe her new colleagues in the more informal setting.

Yusuf and Eames were talking together about some kind of gadget that Ariadne hadn't even heard of. She smiled inwardly as she listened to them; although they were grown men, they sounded just like children when they were talking like that.

Cobb was staring off into the distance, toying with his totem even as he was eating. It was a sight that she couldn't get used to, even though it was far from an exception to see him like this. It hurt her to know that he was still tormented by the memory of Mal, even though she didn't know exactly what had happened between them. She could only imagine how he felt right now, so close to a reunion with his children but so far away at the same time.

Arthur was the last of her colleagues who she focused her gaze on. He was dressed as impeccably as always, even though there didn't seem to be any need for it – it was just the five of them after all, spending another day preparing for the inception.

Even though this was their only actual break of the day, the point man seemed to be working even as he was eating a sandwich. Or at least, he was staring intently at the screen of his phone and for some reason, she highly doubted that he was reading a message from a family member or perhaps a girlfriend. Although she didn't actually know him, she sensed that he was a man who didn't maintain close relationships with other humans.

He studied people and he worked with them, but he didn't truly interact with him, didn't _live_ with them. Just the fact that he was the only one of the team who hadn't opened up to her in a matter of days and didn't make small talk with her, proved to her that he wasn't a very social person.

Or at least, that's what Ariadne thought when she was looking at him. And yet, at the same time she had the feeling that he was a truly fascinating man who was hiding a lot behind the perfectly neutral expression on his face and the flawlessly ironed fabric of his suit.

The men that she worked with were the most interesting ones she had ever met, but Arthur somehow intrigued her most, even though she hardly knew anything about him. They had worked together for weeks and they had shared a few dreams, but she had hardly learned anything about _him _as he had told her more about paradoxes than her mind could process.

Ariadne had been convinced that Arthur was absorbed in whatever it was that he was doing. However, he looked up, almost as if he had felt her attention. Their gazes met for a moment and the architect looked away as quickly as she could, her cheeks reddening now that he had caught her looking at him.

Horrified at her own physical reaction – she was allowed to look at her colleague, wasn't she? - she promised herself not to look into the point man's direction for the rest of the day.

Acting as if nothing had happened, she focused her attention on the coffee that Yusuf had bought her, savoring the heat of it as long as it lasted and trying to forget that she had just stared at Arthur for several minutes.

The cup of coffee was empty far too early for her liking and even as she just held the still hot cup to warm her hands, she found herself shivering with cold once more.

"Hey guys," she said, feeling somewhat uncomfortable when four pair of eyes focused on her. During moments like this she was always horribly aware of the fact that she was both the youngest member of the team, and the only female one. "It's pretty cold in here, isn't it?"

She looked around hopefully – surely there was someone who agreed with her or at least knew how to stay warm in the large room. They had been working in the cold warehouse a lot longer than she had, after all.

As she looked at the clothing of her colleagues instead of watching their behavior like she had done earlier, she realized however that she was the only one who was still wearing clothes that were only suitable for sunny summer days.

A sudden pouring of rain that was so loud that it could be heard inside the room, combined with the wind that howled around the old building, made her feel even more ridiculous. This was not just bad weather, this was weather of the kind that people were warned for on television and on the radio. Obviously, she was the only one who had missed it.

"It's not _that_ cold," Yusuf replied, and Eames nodded in agreement. The two, having lost their interest, continued their conversation, but not before the forger winked at her suggestively.

Rolling her eyes at him, she looked at Cobb, but the extractor just shrugged when he returned her look. His thoughts were clearly not with the Parisian weather, and probably not in France at all.

The point man was the last one she expected to get a reply from, and the last one she wanted to look at after he had just found her staring at him. But even now that she was holding the empty cup of coffee, her fingers were getting stiff and cold, and if it continued like that she wasn't sure whether she'd be able to hold her pencil at the end of the day. If he had any suggestion of how to stay warm, she'd like to hear it.

Arthur's expression was as neutral as ever and although he was sitting further away from her than the others, there was no way that he couldn't have heard her question. Instead of replying however, he had given up all pretense of taking a break and was scribbling fanatically in one of his little notebooks once more.

Another gust of wind seemed to find its way right through the walls as if they weren't there at all, and as Ariadne suppressed a shiver, she was sure that there was no way that the men didn't feel this at all. But she was feeling ridiculous enough already and decided not to press the point.

She continued glaring at Arthur instead, taking in his three piece suit. Today he was wearing a gray colored one and even though it had probably cost the same amount of money as she spent during several months, she highly doubted that the fabric, no matter how expensive it was, could keep him warm during such a day. The man had to be completely engrossed in his work, even during his break, not to be aware of the bad weather that seemed to invade the warehouse more and more. Fascinating, albeit rather strange, indeed.

The other team members finished their lunch and went back to work, just like Ariadne herself. She pulled her scarf tighter around her neck as she focused on her mazes once more.

She didn't feel as cold anymore as she had been now that she was working again, but the shivers that occasionally still ran down her spine were distracting her from the paradoxes she was supposed to create for the Fischer job. And so was the point man, who was sitting on the opposite side of the warehouse, his posture as straight as always even as hour after after hour passed. In spite of herself, she found herself casting curious glances at him every once in a while.

Thus it was no surprise that her work wasn't finished yet when the other team members gradually completed their work for the day, wished her luck with the rest of her task and left the warehouse. Or at least, when even Cobb bade her goodnight she _thought_ that everyone was gone.

Only after half an hour later she realized that the warehouse wasn't deserted except for herself after all. She caught a glimpse of something that wasn't as dark as the rest of the area outside the circle of light of her desk lamp, and realized Arthur was still working too. Unlike her, he was surrounded by darkness, the laptop he was apparently working on standing like some sort of wall between them.

Seeing how much he had done that day she highly doubted that he was still there because he had been distracted like she had been, both by the coldness and the man himself. The thought of the point man being distracted by anyone or anything actually seemed a very unlikely one to her.

She didn't allow herself to waste any more time by wondering what could possibly cause Arthur to lose the focus on his work. She still needed to test whether her mazes and the paradoxes they included were good enough before showing them to the actual dreamers; and if she wanted to get home before she was completely exhausted and frozen, she'd better hurry.

Besides, testing the dream would be the most unpleasant part of the day and she wanted to be done with it as soon as possible. It was not the actual dream that she feared – her subconscious would be a pleasant place to stay indeed at this moment – but what would happen later. After the twenty minutes that she would need in the actual world to completely test the maze-like building that she had designed during the past few days, her body would be very stiff and trembling with cold at best.

She knew that it was all her own fault; the only thing she could do was complete her work for the day as quickly as she could, and made sure to work harder and to keep paying attention to things that weren't work related in the future.

She looked at Arthur for a moment and decided not to tell him that she was going into a dream; she highly doubted that he would notice, let alone care. It was not that she had the impression that he did it on purpose – he had been nothing but kind and patient with her when she needed that during her first days on the job - but he usually just seemed to be focused so much on his own work to pay much attention to others. She had to admit though that she didn't blame him at all; she had no idea how he managed to deal with all the information the way he did with apparent ease in the first place.

Ariadne made her way to a lawn chair and the PASIV machine next to it. She switched on a lamp next to it, creating a new circle of light in the darkness, and quickly read her notes one more time. She sighed as she sat down, stretching her limbs once more, and was unaware of Arthur, who was watching her.

She made sure to give the complex building that she was going to inspect in her dream a pleasant temperature as she carefully connected herself to the PASIV device and activated the machine.

The architect closed her eyes and when she opened them again, she was standing inside the hotel that the team was going to need in the second level of the inception. The temperature wasn't as high as she had hoped, but it wasn't a strange thing seeing that her actual body was still in the warehouse. Either way, in her dream the temperature was a lot more pleasant than in reality.

She began walking through the lobby, paying special attention to the boundaries of the dream, making sure that they were indeed as flawless as was necessary.

As she worked, this time not bothered by the temperature or the rather mysterious point man who was always present, the hours seemed to fly by. Before Ariadne knew it, both her body and mind were on the uncomfortable lawn chair once again.

She took a deep breath, carefully moving her limbs a little to find out how much of her body still actually functioned. To her surprise, she didn't have any trouble while trying to move. In fact, she was hardly feeling cold at all. If it hadn't been for the hard steel of the lawn chair behind her back, she would've thought that she was still dreaming.

Only when she sat up, she noticed the material that had been covering her when she slept. It slid off her because of the upright movement, but intuitively she managed to grab it before it fell on the floor.

A moment later, she found herself staring at a piece of gray fabric. As she studied the material, she realized that it was a jacket.

Her day had been full of surprises, but this was certainly the biggest one. Someone had covered her with the jacket while she slept, knowing that she was cold. There was only one other person in the warehouse, only one person who could've done this for her.

_Arthur_.

She looked up, but his desk was deserted and his laptop was gone. Truly confused now, she gently touched the fabric. As she did so, she became aware of a vaguely familiar smell of soap and aftershave. Unable to resist the temptation, she moved the jacket closer to her face and inhaled deeply.

She recognized the smell now; it had been there, right beside her, when she had been terrified after just having been murdered in a dream for the first time, and when they had climbed a part of endless stairs together.

The scent – Arthur's scent - was somehow pleasant and reassuring, and she found herself breathing in once again, actually feeling calmer as she did so.

The sound of a throat that was being cleared interrupted her thoughts and when she looked up, she found Arthur standing right in front of her. For the second time that day she blushed, but this time she was much more horrified and humiliated than before. Being caught staring at him was nothing compared to being found sniffing his jacket, after all. And she knew how seriously the point man his clothing took. Well, she didn't know exactly, but she had a good idea.

"Is your work of the day finished?"

There was no trace of anger or even mockery in his voice, and it took Ariadne a moment to process the unexpectedly normal question.

"Y-yes," she replied.

It wasn't completely true; she still needed to write down the conclusions of her inspection of the hotel that she had designed for the team, but it could wait. It was not that she could focus on something like _that_ now anyway.

"So is mine," he said. "Shall I drive you home?"

Ariadne had never felt the urge before to use the totem that she had so recently created, but now she was truly tempted to think that she was actually in a dream. Arthur, the only man of the team who hadn't talked to her about things that didn't have anything to do with work - who, in fact, hardly talked to her at all – offered her her a ride home. For a moment, she was too dumbfounded to speak.

"It's still raining, and we wouldn't want you to catch a cold while walking home."

_Of course_. He had nothing in mind but her well-being because they needed her for the inception. But still, the offer was rather bizarre.

"My car is parked right outside the warehouse," he continued, and if she hadn't been so astounded, she would've heard a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

"Alright," she found herself saying.

Suddenly very much aware of the jacket that she was still holding, she stretched her arm to give it back to him.

"You can keep it a bit longer," he replied, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

Even more bewildered than before, Ariadne accepted the hand that was stretched out to her and allowed him to pull her on her feet. Arthur wasn't done yet behaving unexpectedly however.

When she was standing in front of him, the smell of his aftershave reached her nostrils once more and she couldn't help but think that it was a very pleasant smell indeed. And as if that realization wasn't shocking enough yet, Arthur stepped towards her, took his jacket from her unmoving hands and placed the fabric around her shoulders.

"Just put it on," he said gently, "it's cold outside."

Usually, she would've made a sarcastic remark – it was rather ironic after all that _he _was the one now saying that it was cold – but she was too dumbfounded now to do so.

Somewhat reluctantly because she still had the feeling that Arthur would realize very soon how uncharacteristically he was behaving, she managed to get her arms into the sleeves and move the buttons through their holes. She felt ridiculous, but nicely warm once again.

He gestured her to follow him and she did, only partly aware of the rain that was still falling down and the wind that blew it with huge force in all possible directions. It was much colder now than it had been that morning, probably because of the wind, but this too was something she didn't really notice.

Arthur unlocked the door of his car and opened it for her; only when he was sure that she was seated, he closed it behind her and rushed to the other side of the car to get in himself.

He didn't speak to her as he drove her home, but the silence was a comfortable one. Besides, the wind that seemed to be getting more and more powerful, howled around the car and made a normal conversation impossible. Ariadne wasn't sure whether she would've been able to make small talk in the first place. She couldn't help but stare at Arthur from the corners of her eye, wondering how much crazier life could get.

The comfort and warmth of his car were a huge relief after having spent all day in the warehouse and in spite of the situation, the architect found herself relaxing in a way she hadn't been for quite a while even as the forces of nature tormented the mostly abandoned streets.

He didn't ask her where he was supposed to take her to, and she was waiting for him to, until she realized that he, being the point man of the team, already knew such things and probably had them all memorized. The man seemed to know everything. She vaguely wondered to what extent she had been researched before Cobb had chosen her, and how much of that information was still present in the point man's flawless memory.

Within only a few minutes they arrived before the building where she lived and Arthur parked right in front of the door. Suddenly feeling rather awkward as she was trying to think of the right words to say, she took off the jacket and handed it back to him. His small smile as she did so wasn't making things easier either.

"Thanks for the jacket and for driving me home," was all she managed to say.

"Anytime," he replied, and there was something in his voice that made her hands tremble in a whole new way when she opened the door and got out of the car. A part of her wanted to remain standing there, her hand still on the handle, just to stare at the man who just had acted in such an entirely unexpected way. But to remain standing in the rain didn't seem the right way to show her gratitude after he had just driven her home through the storm.

Coming somewhat to her senses as she was exposed to the extreme weather, she rushed to the entrance and entered the hallway of the building where she lived, her mind attempting to comprehend the recent developments.

Standing right behind the door, she waved at Arthur as he drove away and watched his car until its lights disappeared into the restless night.

None of what just had happened made any sense, but the architect was somehow sure of one thing: it were not just her limbs now that were pleasantly warm at last, but there was a sudden warmth in a place deep inside of her, a place of which she hadn't even known that it was there.

Ariadne had no idea what had just happened and what it was supposed to mean, only that it was fascinating indeed.

* * *

_A/N: I have a few more temperature related ideas and I'll try to turn this into a multi-chapter Arthur/Ariadne story._


	2. Heating

Heating

The following day, Arthur parked his car at the same spot where had dropped Ariadne off last night. Usually he would've been in the warehouse already, but today there were things that he wanted to do before continuing his work.

Adjusting the temperature inside his car to ensure a pleasantly warm indoor climate, he held a close eye on the front door of the building where Ariadne lived.

Even as he had decided to pick her up this morning, Arthur had felt rather foolish and knew that it probably wasn't a good idea to drive the young architect to the warehouse. This feeling hadn't changed, but it ceased to matter when Ariadne exited the hallway of her apartment.

It was tempting to say that he took an interest in her because she was of priceless value to the team, that he had to take care of her because someone had to so now that Cobb was fighting his demons. No matter how easily she picked things up, she needed guidance in order not to lost track of her real life.

The point man told himself that those _were_ the reasons that he found himself looking at her much more frequently than he usually would and thought about her more than of any other of his colleagues did, but it was more than that.

There was something about her that made it even more exciting to be part of the team and work on the Fischer job, something about her that made him feel strangely pleasant. Her intellect and talent were stimulating, but her eyes and smile truly fascinated and inspired him.

He knew what this meant and that it was a most unfortunate development, especially during a job like this, that required all their focus and dedication.

But yet, he honked to get her attention, smiling when she waved at him and headed for his car. The harder he tried, the harder it was to stay away from her and he found himself being actually distracted by her while working.

Usually he could prevent himself from casting glances at her too often, but yesterday he simply hadn't been able to ignore her as she sat shivering behind her desk. He had tried to persuade himself that it wasn't his concern, that he shouldn't be more worried than the rest of the team was – and look where that had gotten him.

But yet, just seeing that she was wearing a proper coat this time made him feel happy, because it made clear that she hadn't forgotten today that there was also a world that didn't exist in dreams only.

"Good morning," he said after opening the window of his door of the car, feeling even more ridiculous now that he saw her.

"Hey," she replied, looking rather sheepish. "May I ask what are you doing here?"

"The storm isn't completely over yet and I figured I might as well give you a ride, just like yesterday."

At least that sounded rational.

A gust of cold air was blown into his car when he was talking to Ariadne through the open window, but he only felt warmth when he looked at his new colleague.

She looked indecisive for a moment but then she nodded, although she still looked as if she wasn't sure whether she should or shouldn't accept the offer. Hoping that this had to do with her usual fondness for walking through the awakening city and not with a reluctance to spend more time with _him_, Arthur gestured her to step in as he closed the window of the car.

When he drove through the Parisian streets, he realized how much he had missed good company in his life. It was difficult to stay in touch with family and friends when being in the kind of profession that he was, and it was even more harder to find new friends, let alone create a new family.

He had his colleagues, of course, but mostly they were not more than that. After years of working together, Cobb and he had formed a respectful friendship, but the extractor wasn't someone who he wanted to talk with about his deepest thoughts and feelings, especially not now that Cobb was already more troubled than a single person should ever be.

Moving from one secret and dangerous job to another and going from one foreign city to the next wasn't a good way to maintain relationships. Arthur knew this and had accepted it. Unlike others in the field of extraction who he had gotten to know during the years, he also wasn't someone who was comfortable with forming relationships while laying low somewhere far from the most recent crime scene, only to disappear after a while to never return.

The point man loved his work more than anything and was willing to give up a lot for it. He had been rather sure that he didn't need a best friend – or a girlfriend – as long as there were jobs for him. But as he was getting to know Ariadne, he began to doubt this. Suddenly, waiting to commit himself to someone until he would quit his not exactly legal work hadn't seemed like such a good plan anymore.

"Nice car," she said as she stepped in.

"How so?" he asked, wondering what she was thinking now that she had taken a proper look at his car for the first time. Which was rather odd, for he usually didn't care what people (and then especially Eames) thought of whatever car he temporarily owned when preparing for a job.

"It's not... it's not what I expected."

"Well, we can't all park our _exclusive _and _expensive _cars with a foreign license plates in front of the warehouse and hope that no one begins to wonder what exactly is going on inside."

Ariadne laughed at the obvious reference to Eames's shiny new Mercedes and Arthur found the sound quite a lot more enchanting than the mighty roar of the engine of said car, which he thought _was_ a very impressing one – but it was not that he would ever tell that to Eames.

"Wherever I go, I try to get a car that is most unlikely to rouse suspicion. I only rent them as long as the job lasts anyway."

"That sounds like a very sensible thing to do," she simply said. "But I do like this car."

Arthur tried to find the expected mockery or insincerity in her voice, but he couldn't detect it. He couldn't suppress a small smile, for some reason pleased that she genuinely seemed to like his car. That was something he would most certainly remember the next time that Eames made a joke about his green Renault.

When they drove out of the street, they began a conversation about the benefits of car rental for a while and to his surprise, it was very easy to have a casual conversation with the new architect.

Soon the topic changed to the storm that had swept through Paris and Arthur was pleased to hear her quote information from the news report of that morning. For him, listening to news reports on the radio or watching them on television was a good way to keep track of reality. The thought that Ariadne had taken her time today to check the news and actually remembered a lot of parts of it, was a comforting one.

The storm had caused quite some damage in the city and as they started to talk about the various parts of trees and buildings that were at places where they shouldn't be, Arthur realized once more how much he had grown to enjoy her company.

He both wanted to continue spending time with her once the job was over and possibly to develop their companionship into something more than that, but he knew that this was impossible. He wasn't even sure whether she liked him as a colleague and even _if_ she did, the example of Cobb and Mal wasn't an encouraging one.

"I hope the warehouse is actually still there," Ariadne said after a moment of silence, interrupting his train of thoughts. "It is quite old after all and not very stable. Have you heard anything about it from the others?"

"I haven't," he replied, mentally checking the phone calls he had made that morning just to be sure. Usually he would remember exactly that kind of thing – and would've asked the same question about the current state of the warehouse before anyone else had. Mentally he reminded himself again to stay _focused_, even when he was talking to Ariadne outside of work.

They arrived at the workshop before he knew it and and as he drove around it, looking for an available parking space, both of them also checked the walls and roof of the building.

The only unusual thing they saw however was Eames's car, that for once wasn't double parked. Positioning his Renault next to the black Mercedes, Arthur didn't feel a twinge of regret or even annoyance this time.

Only as they stepped out of the car and headed for the entrance of the warehouse simultaneously, Arthur realized that this idea was even more risky than he had thought. Ariadne wouldn't be the only one knowing that he had offered her a ride – the entire team would know too as soon as they would step into the workshop at the same time.

The woman who was walking next to him didn't seem to be aware of this and the point man tried to follow her example. Pretending that nothing out of the ordinary was going on, he pushed one large door of the building open for Ariadne and followed her as soon as she was inside.

Yusuf was busy mixing chemicals in his corner of the warehouse and didn't see them entering the building together, just like Cobb who was nowhere to be seen at that moment. Eames was studying Browning's file but immediately looked up when he heard them, his eyes widening with surprise and then amusement as he saw them.

Arthur knew that expression on the forger's face only too well. It was clear that Eames wouldn't leave him alone until he he had found out exactly what was going on between him and Ariadne, as if interacting with the young architect wasn't challenging enough without Eames interfering.

But it was too late to change anything now anyway and at least Cobb hadn't seem them. If there was someone who Arthur didn't want to explain to what he thought that he was doing to the young architect, it was the leader of their team. The point man knew of the risk that he was taking by even thinking of Ariadne as more than just a colleague or even a friend.

The point man sighed inwardly, but the upcoming confrontations with an obviously intrigued Eames and a doubtlessly concerned Cobb were temporarily forgotten when he became aware of the temperature in the warehouse. To Arthur, it seemed to be at least as cool inside as the day before and although that didn't really bother him personally, he was afraid of the influence that it might have on Ariadne. Last night her body had gone so cold after all that he had seen no other way to keep her warm than covering her body with his own jacket.

The architect had chosen her clothes a lot more wisely today but he knew from experience that thick layers of fabric helped only to a certain extent against the cold when one had to sit still for a long period of time.

Arthur had prepared for this however earlier that morning, doing a bit of shopping just after opening hours before he went to Ariadne's apartment. Back then he had told himself that he was only going to help the architect this way because he couldn't go giving her his jacket every time that the seemingly sensitive woman was cold, but after the short but very pleasant car ride he was willing to admit that he just wanted to help her, whether that benefited him as well or not.

When he had initially entered the warehouse, he had been too busy considering the consequences of his decision to give Ariadne a ride to remember to carry his purchase into the building.

As she headed for her desk, Arthur returned to his car and opened the trunk, exposing the portable electric heater that he had bought earlier that day. Locking his car again, he carried the object into the building, standing still on the threshold for a moment to survey the interior of the warehouse before he decided where to place the heater.

In order not to make things too obvious, he carried the heater to a still empty spot between Ariadne's desk and the one of the team member sitting closest to her, which happened to Yusuf.

Before he had even been able to switch the heater on, the chemist looked up from his work.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Well, I..."

Before the point man could find the right words to explain to Yusuf that he wanted to place the heater near Ariadne's desk without making it too clear that it was all about _Ariadne_, the chemist began to talk about the materials that he was working with and that sudden changes in temperature had potentially negative effects on the sedatives that he was experimenting with.

The monologue caught Ariadne's attention and the point man felt even more self-conscious when her curious eyes moved from Yusuf to him and back, only to eventually rest on him. The things she did to him, apparently without even being aware of him, were disturbing indeed.

Eventually, Yusuf concluded that a heater wasn't such a bad idea considering the weather, but that it couldn't be near his workplace. Since the heater was easier to move than his desk, Arthur should chose a new location for the heater.

All the four present members of the team were either discussing or listening closely to the conversation and even if Arthur would've had the courage to admit to Yusuf that Ariadne was the reason that it was not the heater that could be moved, he certainly didn't dare saying so now that both Eames and the architect herself were listening intently.

He cast a careful glance at Ariadne, hoping that she could somehow support him. He could see that she wanted the heater to be near her desk as much as Arthur did himself, even though she was sitting in the same part of the room as Yusuf. But, just like yesterday, she still felt insecure about getting involved in situations like this.

Luckily, that was the moment that Eames decided to join the discussion. The Brit began a rather theatrical speech about his general aversion of warmth, seeing the climate in which he had grown up. He had the nerve to wink mischievously at him even as he was talking, but Arthur was too grateful for the forger's support to care.

During the minutes that followed, everyone's location in the warehouse was re-evaluated and it was decided that Eames and Ariadne would swap desks. This way, Ariadne would end up sitting in the opposite part of the room, as far away from Yusuf's chemicals as was possible. This also incidentally meant that she was going to be right next to Arthur.

Arthur tried not to look too smug when he switched on the electric heater at last, realizing that there was no better place for it indeed than right between Ariadne's desk and his own.

Taking their files, mazes, tools and other material with them to their new desks took Eames and Ariadne longer than expected, but after another ten minutes the colleagues had completely swapped places and the full team could go to work at last. The point man was rather glad because of this, a part of him feeling guilty for delaying the work of the majority of the team like he just had done.

It seemed to him that the temperature in the room – or at least Ariadne's and his part of it – increased rapidly as soon as they got back to work and he wasn't sure whether this was because of the heater or because of the fact that the architect was sitting much closer to him than she had before.

He could see her brow furrowing with concentration, how she bit the edge of her pencil every once in a while, the hand that toyed with some loose locks of her hair...

Arthur shook his head, wondering what was wrong with him and whether it had been such a good idea after all to (attempt to) work at such a close distance of the charming architect.

But then she looked up and met his gaze. This shouldn't have come as a shock, for he wouldn't have been surprised if she had actually been able to _feel_ his stares. But yet, he wanted to look away as quickly as he could, his cheeks coloring slightly because she had found him staring at her just after he had arranged her to sit in the same corner as he did. Embarrassing – and unusual for a man like him – indeed.

He couldn't even find the will to look away however. Their eyes locked and to his delight, she smiled at him. The smile was rather shy, but it was a smile nonetheless – a smile that made him beam at her.

During the previous day, they had shared a similar moment. Although she had been the one to gaze at him first, she had looked away when he saw her and had pretended that nothing had happened.

This moment however was very different. They both acknowledged what was happening between them and it made him feel at ease. It seemed that he could look at her now without having to fear the consequences – or at least not from her side – and when they went back to their work, he found it much easier to focus on his files instead of Ariadne than before, simply because he _could_ look at her now if he wanted to.

Cobb returned not much later, the ancient looking books that he was carrying with him suggesting that he had gone to Miles for additional information on extraction or inception, or perhaps for advice.

The extractor rose an eyebrow when he noticed the change, but he didn't say anything. Arthur was glad because of this; he didn't want Cobb to presume anything about Ariadne and him, not now that Eames was already suspicious. It would be rather humiliating if the entire team would know about his interest in the new architect before he had figured out the depth of his feelings for Ariadne himself.

After a few hours she approached his desk, carrying a piece of paper with her. She explained that she had made some notes based on the dream of the hotel that she had revised the night before. She had found some possible errors and would like to hear his opinion before going to try to fix them.

Usually the team would solve things like this by going into the relevant constructed dream together, but because both of them had lost quite some time during the previous and the current day already, they decided to postpone this.

Not having worked before on a dream of such a large scale, she had some questions about the general layout of the city of Yusuf's dream, where they were supposed to pick up Fischer somehow. Since Cobb refused to help her with things like that, the point man was the only other logical choice.

Arthur was aware of that, just like he knew that they shouldn't. But before they knew it, her chair was behind his desk already, next to his own, and he was answering her questions, enthusiastically sketching in one of her notebooks as he was doing so.

Time flew by and both of them were completely caught up in the drawings of the large maze as he explained things to her that she didn't fully understand yet.

Arthur loved his job and had done so for quite some years, but he couldn't remember a moment during which he was so grateful to do what he did as when Ariadne and he were working together.

Only a not so subtle cough from Eames reminded the point man that time still existed and that the mazes weren't the only thing that should be completed before Maurice Fischer died.

He cast a glance on his watch, horrified to see that he should've called one of his contacts half an hour ago. Excusing himself to Ariadne, who quickly went back to her own desk looking rather guilty as well, he picked up his phone and chose the right number, hoping to get in touch with the informant after all.

Waiting for the phone to connect, he watched how she undid the top button of her blouse and loosened her scarf, clearly not being cold any longer or aware of the fact that he was looking at her.

By then Arthur knew for sure that it definitely wasn't the heater that made him feel so flushed.


End file.
